Photo Club Week 1

The First Photography Club meeting was yesterday.  What an amazing group of students.  I'm so inspired by how excited they were when they entered the art room after school.

In our first meeting we talked about the correct way to hold our cameras while shooting.  Since most digital cameras don't have a view finder to look through, we have a bad habit of holding the camera (our phones included) far away from our bodies.  This causes the camera to be less stable, which is one of the major causes of the dreaded blurry photo.
Some tips to increase camera shake:

• Hold the camera close to your body
• Tuck your elbows in against your sides
• Keep a firm grip on the camera
• Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart

We also discussed ways to improve composition, or the way your photograph is organized.  We talked about The Rule of Thirds.  The Rule of Thirds is a way to divide a composition by drawing 2 vertical lines & 2 horizontal lines.  The goal is to place your main focal point (or subject) of your composition along a vertical or horizontal line and one of the intersecting points.  This website has some great examples and explanations.

Photo by Marrs

Though it is sometimes necessary to place the subject in the center of the image, using the Rule of Thirds helps keep images interesting.

We also talked about how triangles are the most amazing shapes in the history of ever (they're my favorite), and help create interesting compositions.  Here's an example:

SO MANY TRIANGLES!  Having an odd number of people also help keep the image seem balanced.

The assignment for week one is to capture the elements of art through photography.  The 7 elements are: Line, Shape, Form, Color, Space, Value and Texture.  We talked about what those are and that there might be multiple in one image.

Here are some examples I got during our meeting:

The first photo shows 3 elements- Line, texture & value. #2 Shows Space/Perspective. #3 shows line & value.

This is from the State Fair last year.  Sometimes line can be items in a.. line. :)













Now, go out and capture the elements!

Sick Day = Blog Day

Hello friends!  I hope you're all doing super!

I'm here in my pajamas with the sinuses of doom.  I hate not being at school with my kiddos, but I felt a doctor visit was in order.

We've been getting into the swing of things in the art room & I'm starting to get some pieces hung around the school.  We've been talking about & reviewing the Elements of Art, starting with line and shape in every grade level. 

4th & 5th Grade have been making Art Elements books

Each flap has examples & definitions

Kindergarten has made some AMAZING paper line sculptures.  They can name all sorts of lines... though that word "diagonal" gives them some really cute trouble.    Be encouraging them to talk to you about what they're learning, and help them remember the difference between horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.  They have also learned that lines are super important because lines make shapes, and shapes make EVERYTHING! :)

First grade created some beautiful flowers by painting line patterns on top of color patterns on a paper plate!  They used previously made painted paper to make their petals.  They also created repeated lines on colored butcher paper which my 5th grade helper & I made into a giant landscape.  We are still working on this.  I have 2 more classes that need to paint their butcher paper so we can create another collaborative art piece.  I'm so excited about how all of this turned out!!

Second grade is currently working on a Kandinsky inspired overlapping lines & shapes piece with oil pastel and watercolor.  In this lesson they are working on improving several skills, including: tracing, coloring neatly, and painting properly.  We learned that Kandinsky had a condition called synesthesia, where he could hear color and see music.  We channeled our inner Kandinsky by listening to different classical music while drawing to see how it inspired the way we created art.  

Third grade just finished making their Kandinsky inspired foil relief sculptures for National Dot Day.  The Dot is a wonderful story by Peter H. Reynolds about a student who is inspired by her teacher and is then determined to keep improving her art.  We used styro-foam plates and foil to create a relief sculpture by tracing circles, cutting them and gluing them onto a plate then covering it in foil.  They then created color and line patterns on top of the foil.   We then printed circles on black paper to create a background for their foil dots.  They look amazing. 

Fourth grade has been stitching up a storm!!!  After covering cardboard squares in brightly colored paint, we have started creating radial designs with thread.  It was difficult  at first (threading the tapestry needle proved to be more difficult than I had expected!), but once they got the hang of it they have been making the most gorgeous designs!  I can't wait to display them.

Fifth grade has finished painting their looms (the frame that holds the yarn), and is in the beginning stages of warping (stringing the thread onto the loom) them.  They've been really excited about working on this project and are probably very upset with me for being out today.  

5th grader painting his loom

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Weekend Work

My classroom is silent except for the air conditioner.  I'm trying to take it all in, because this is the last bit of total silence this room will have for quite awhile.

It's nice.

I'm here putting the last finishing touches on the art room and the first week of plans.  The room looks like a hot mess, but it's better than in looked on Friday.  The cleanliness won't last too much longer, either.  Once the creating starts, the room will be back to it's normal, paint-filled, colorful self.

Progress

Thursday night we had Meet the Teacher (after a very long day of convocation and working).  I saw several new, smiling faces and some returning faces that I had missed over the summer.  I was very excited to see all of them.  This year I hope that we all get inspired by something or someone to do our very best.  We are a team of artists and learners and as a team, we must work together to encourage each other and stay positive.

I was inspired by a tweet I saw from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.  A fabulous collection of children's artwork in the NYC area.  I want to share that with you in hopes you will be inspired by the creativity of the young mind.
P.S. Art 2015: Student Artworks

See you Tuesday!

Back to School

     The summer is dwindling down and all the teachers are getting into "back to school" mode.  Scrambling to get our rooms together, get our lessons together, and investing in all the coffee humanly possible.

     To get us back into teacher mode, we had our first official art professional development days last week.  It's always good to get together with the other art teachers in the district and learn (and play).  I was unable to attend the PD on Monday due to traveling, but Tuesday was such a blast.
     We had a speaker come in from Trinity Ceramics and give us a wonderful clay workshop.  He gave us so much information on different types of clay, how to properly bisque fire and glazes.

Mrs. Yannis prepping her clay

Then came the fun part: making clay rattles. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to make some rattles with my little artists! It was super easy to start, rolling tiny clay spheres to put inside the rattle, then making two pinch pots. After the two pots were made, we wrapped the 10-15 tiny spheres in a small piece of tissue paper, then scored & slipped the pots together.

Mrs. Mock took a photo of all the different designs

      Then the creativity came into play.  Everyone made their rattles look different!  There were animals, toys, and abstract rattles. This definitely helped me get back into the swing of things.  I'm really excited for all the learning and creating we're going to do in the 2015-16 school year!  Did you create anything this summer?  I'd love to hear about it!!

Chicks, man...

     Hi, Everybody!  Back in April our first graders began their yearly chicken unit. Our eggs came in and sadly, only two hatched. The two that hatched I lovingly named Laverne and Shirley.   Later, I found that Shirley was not a Shirley after all, and was renamed Squiggy.

Squiggy & Laverne

Laverne & "Shirley"

     Unfortunately, most schools had little success with their eggs hatching, so the science department sent us a new batch of eggs.  We went from two chicks hatching to somewhere around 13.  The students were incredibly happy.  After finding out that Squiggy was going to be a rooster and knowing that I can't keep a rooster, I got three more chicks.  Even though I very carefully studied the chicks before bringing them home (I looked very closely at their wings and tail feathers trying to choose chicks that had more feathers), one still has a 99% chance of being a rooster.  So instead of having Lucy, Ethel & Carolyn, I'm left with Lucy, Ricky & Ethel.   It has definitely been a fun adventure with these little guys.

Ethel, Lucy, Ricky

Ricky & Isaac

Ethel, Ricky, Lucy

     Now, Lucy & Squiggy are just around 3 months old, and they are HUGE.  We found out that they are chickens that were specifically bred for their meat.  The poor things can't even get into the hen house comfortably.  Ricky, Lucy, & Ethel are 8 weeks old (today, in fact), and they seem to be normal sized chickens.  They don't eat as much and they haven't grown as fast as the other two did.  I'm still not sure what breeds they are, so if you have any ideas... throw them my way. :)

      

     As I said before, we are not allowed to have roosters in our neighborhood.  The City of Denton will give you a big fat ticket for it, in fact.   So, yesterday was a bittersweet day, as Mr. Squiggy went to his new home.  Soon, the same will happen to Ricky (though I'm hoping Ricky will have a better outcome).  I actually missed hearing his crow this morning.  I did not, however, miss him running after me when I went out to feed him.  I'm sure the neighbors missed seeing me running through the yard like a crazy person trying to escape his beak of doom.  

Squiggy's last day in Denton

I will leave you with that for now.  I often post chicken pictures to our Nance Specials twitter account, so follow us already!

Greetings, Earthlings

In case you're someone browsing the interwebs looking for inspiration, I suppose I should start with a little introduction.  

My name is Jamie (Miss Marrs to my students).  I'm about to start my third year as an elementary art educator, deep in the heart of Texas.  Being the art teacher is a difficult job, but somebody's gotta do it.  I'm happy to take on the challenge.

I'm the proud mom to 2 furry feline friends and 2 very long, short legged dogs.  I'm often found hanging around a human named Isaac.  Together (with our 5 chickens) we are a very happy little family.

I frequent many art blogs when looking for ideas and inspiration, and thought "Maybe I should start my own blog to share MY ideas."  So here we are.   My goal is to keep this blog updated with all the happenings of the Nance Elementary art room.  I'd like for it to be a way for students, parents, teachers and other visitors to leave feedback on the work we're doing in class or as a school community!  

What would you like to see on the Nance Art Blog??

JM